THE YOUNG XATCBAL1ST. 



<7 



silken w eb. I will piuck the flow er and stem, 

 and split the latter open,'' and so doing a 

 little fat greyish larva fell into her hand. 

 " Now you see this is another kind, let us 

 take it home, and you will see it will produce 

 a moth quite different from the other. Its 

 w ings will be cleft into separate plumes, and 

 its name is as ugly as the moth is beautiful, 

 if I tell it you you will forget it in ten 

 minutes, but I will try you, it is Pterophorus 

 tri&moiartyhis." 



■• 1'ity a poor ho's, till I've gone for t 

 <\ ctor, lass. O yes, I can think of that,'' said 

 Sum shine, with a smile. 



Passing along, a brimstone butterfly flut- 

 tered across their path, and Spring explained 

 that probably it had just awoke from a long, 

 long sleep. " It has slept ever since last 

 October in some snug out-of-the-way place, 

 perhaps in one of those great hollow trees, 

 which are so old that their insides have de- 

 cayed, and crumbled away, and now the first 

 warm days have roused it from its slumbers, 

 and it is now on its way to seek a partner, 

 after which it will resort to some buckthorn 

 bush, where it w ill deposit its eggs.'' 



" How old do you think those trees are ? 

 asked Sunshine, " see. here is one which all 

 three of us could not reach round if joined 

 hand in hand ; it is hollow, and indeed there 

 is a doorway on one side, let us go in, and see 

 what it is like within." Inside the three 

 found comfortable standing room, it was 

 rather dark, but if they could only have seen 

 above their heads they might have been able 

 to discover several bats suspended by their 

 hind legs, and their heads hanging dow n, fast 

 asleep. 



" Well, I should think that this tree at the 

 very least is 200 years old, but we cannot tell. 

 If it were not hollow , and we were to saw it 

 across the stem, and polish the sawn surface, 

 w e could tell pretty nearly how old it is. We 

 should see a series of rings, and if we counted 

 the number of these rings correctly we should 

 get the number of years the tree has been 

 growing. Every year, you see, the bark 



loosens from the wood, and the sap flows up, 

 and makes a deposit of new wood, which 

 forms one ring; the next year another deposit 

 , is made, w hich forms another ring. If we 

 only understood the growth of these rings, 

 no doubt many important lessons might be 

 learned from them. For instance you would 

 ) be surprised if from the study of these rings I 

 I could tell you that one season a hundred 

 years ago was particularly wet or dry, yet 

 there is no doubt that trees make more wood, 

 that is, leave a thicker deposit, when the 

 , summer is wet than they do when it is dry. 



Most trees and plants crow in this way, that 

 , is by adding to the outside, and these are 

 called exogenous plants, from two Greek words 

 1 — exo without, and genn-Jo I produce. Others 

 I grow from the inside, and are called endo- 

 \ gcnous plants, from the Greek endon within, 

 j and gennao I produce. This latter class may 

 generally be know n by the veins of the leaves 

 running parallel to each other, like grass, 

 while the exogens have diverging veins like 

 this oak tree. And now," continued Spring, 

 " I am going to sketch this scene w hich you 

 see before us," and she took from her bag a 

 small sketch block, and a box of colors, and 

 sat down on one of the large rough roots of 

 the sturdy old oak, that bared themselves 

 above the earth 



"And what shall we do?" enquired the 

 other two. 



• I do wish we had brought Aunt Judy's 

 brandy bottle to warm us up, don't you 



Spring." 



" No indeed, I do not, and if you want 

 warming I can tell you how to do it without 

 Aunt Judy's brandy bottle. Run down this 

 hedge side to the bottom, then turn on the 

 lane a little way and you will find a spring of 

 crystal water, take a good draught, and then 

 run back to me. Now be sure to run, don't 

 loiter, but run," and the two set off in the 

 direction Spring had instructed them while 

 she set to work and painted the glowing 

 scene. 



(To be continued.) 



